Take A Deep Breath
by Brenaners
Summary: She feels like she's drowning and being suffocated by water. Surround on all sides. Unable to take a breath. Unable to move. Not until those crimson eyes stare down into her cold, wet soul. That's when her world stops and her worries melt. Villain AU.


**A/N: **My OC might seem like a Mary Sue with the way she dresses but please remember my OC is _girly_. I dress her like I dress myself. I do wear heels, wedges, and I love _love _wearing high heeled boots with my skirts in fall as much as possible. It's just a little bit of me being written into my character. It's not written to make her seem perfect and prim. I just really like fashion and implemented that into my OC. I can't even tell you the amount of times I have worn heels when I shouldnt have!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Hero Academia.

**Chapter One: When the Lion Met the Lamb**

**Arc: Memories**

**Katsuki Bakugou: Age 4**

**Anahita Keres :Age 4**

* * *

At the tender age of four she realized what her surname entitled her too. She was aware of the empire beneath her feet and the power she held in name alone. Just the mention of a simple two syllable word and people would be running. _Keres._ The last name of a villian. The name for the reason she sat with turtles by the river alone.

Anahita Keres had crawled her way through a small hole in the fence of her backyard and then made the long venture to the playground on top of a hill near a river. Her sundress ripped on the edges and got a few grass stains on her journey over. Committed to not play to see the outside world.

The outside world, she quickly learned, is cruel.

"Keres? Like the villain?" A boy sneered, raising a stick to keep distance between the two.

"You need to leave! You're evil just like your parents! We don't want you here!" A pink haired girl snatched the stick and tossed it towards Anahita's face but falling short. "We'll chase you away like heroes."

"It's - It's not like that! I just want to play!" Anahita grips her sundress with fist, tears falling from her eyes. "I don't want to hurt anyone." She doesn't want to and would never want to. She can't seem to get anyone to believe her. Her fists begins to shake as well as her legs. She just wants to play.

"Go away, villain!"

"Go away!"

"_Go away!"_

"I just want to have a tea party. I promise I won't hurt anyone." Anahita shouts, taking a few steps back. More sticks went flying and a rock here and there nicked her in the back and at her legs as she made a quick turn and went running down the hill. High pitched cries escaped from her throat. Unable to hide the pain the small rocks and sticks caused.

Stumbling over her own to feet, barely being able to keep herself upright, Anahita trips over her own feet when a rock lands itself perfectly on the back of her leg. and rolls the rest of the way down, almost falling completely into the river. The skirt of her yellow sundress flipped over her head and their chants began to fade away into the distance.

"I just wanted to make friends." Anahita cries softly and wrestles her dress back down where it belongs. The ends are completely covered in mud and grass stains. Multiple holes in the back. A definite indication to her parents that she was doing more than wondering around their backyard.

Sighing, Anahita crawls slowly to the river of turtles. Her reflection showing perfectly in the water. A dirty, smudged face and disheveled dark navy hair completely out of her once perfect braid. Instead of making friends like she planned, she sat near the turtles, much to Ana's dismay.

She roughly wipes her eyes with her left hand, careful not to get mud in her seafoam green eyes, and slowly lets her hand dip into the cold water with her other hand. The water begins to slowly twirl around her fingers. Slowly, so slowly, but the feeling of water on her hands felt like a breath of fresh air.

Her hand swirls and moves slowly in the water. Moving the current between her fingers, pulling and pushing the turtles in a lazy circle, moving them closer to her bit by bit. Her quirk, mermaid, lets her manipulate water. Although, she can't do much but push and pull the water in small increments for now.

The turtles paddle along the current, not fighting the lazy pool she made for them but not exactly going along with it either. Some of them flipped over but she was quick to right the poor animals with the moving waves with a flick of her finger.

"At least the sea animals will always be my friend." Anahita whispers while lightly running her finger down the back of the turtles shell. His flipper waved in the air in response.

"Who are you?" Seafoam green met blazing red. "Why do you look like a potato?" He sneered. Her heart skipped a beat.

"My name is Anahita," She scrambled to her feet, ignoring the jumps and shaking her heart is doing. She shoved her hands into the hem of her dress once and clenching around the dirty white fabric of her dress. "And, and I-" the water by their feet began shaking and swirling, slowly making its way around her wrist. Her fear beginning to take over, she started taking deep breaths.

"Do you not know how to talk?" He sneers, red eyes squinting at her. His fingers drum against the heavy stick the blonde is holding against his shoulder. He points his stick at her. "And why do you look like a potato? Is that your quirk? That's stupid." He scrunches his nose and makes his way forward to walk away. His interest completely tossed. Her breathing became more rapid.

His shoulder brushed passed her lightly. He didn't even spare a glance. As if she wasn't standing here at all. Her emotions spiked higher than she ever felt and without taking a second to think about it, she pushed her hand forward. Water rushed out the river, past her, and right smack middle of the blonde's head.

He froze and she never wanted to run more in her life but she felt glued to the grass. He glanced back at her with a tilted head and squinted eyes. "What do you think you're doing, huh?" He shouts, mini explosions coming from his hands.

She takes a step back. The water that had splashed his head was no bigger than the size of her palm from her unable to move large bodies of water but that didn't seem to matter ot the red faced blonde. Her heart jumps turned into queasy flips. Or that might be her stomach, she wasn't sure.

She really is terrible at making friends.

"My - My quirk isn't a potato! It's mermaid." She shouts. She can feel her her fingernails through the fabric of her dress with how hard she is gripping it. She is absolutely mortified. She can barely stand in front of a child her same age. She threw water at him and he thinks she looks like a potato of all things!

She never should have went past the fence. She should have stayed hidden from the world. Stayed with her mom and her dog and her tea party whose only attendance is her stuffed animals. She never should have left.

Her breathing got rough. Ragged and choppy.

"Mermaid? Well, show me what you got." The blond smirked, palm facing towards her. "No one else my age has gotten their lame quirk yet and I want to test mine out."

Anahita fell to the ground, heading hanging low. "What?" She cries, looking him at him with wide eyes. He can't be serious, she thinks. He looked like he was about to eat her whole a few seconds ago.

"What," He frowns, hands lowered. "To chicken?"

Anahita lets out a small whimper. She never knew making friends would require so much fighting.

* * *

Anahita runs along bridge over a duck pond, hands flying in the air and thin sparse lines of water quickly follow after. Crossing streams over the bridge, she is careful to not hit Bakugo or his many followers trailing behind him.

Her blue skirt flares around with every twirl and jump her navy blue hair kept getting stuck in her mouth. "Bakugo, look! Look what I can do!" Anahita laughs, using one hand to yank her hair out of her mouth. "It's like it's raining!"

Bakugo looks back with a grunt."It's cool and all, Ana, but it's just a sprinkle of water. Anyone can dip their hands in water and flick it." Bakugo looks forward once again, ignoring the pout on his best friends face. "My quirk on the other hand, no one else has! Explosions coming out of my hands? Now that's a quirk!"

His minions chimed in agreement, all six of the neighborhood boys continuing to march into a matching upbeat rhythm. Anahita did a quick flick of the wrist to let the water tangle and slide under the random followers her friend seemed to collect before their meetup. Four of the six boys slipped and tripped over themselves, letting the short black haired girl make her way back up to and behind Bakugo's side.

She lowers her hands and let the strings of water fall at her feet and fall behind him with a small sigh. Anahita only lets her smile faltering for a split second. She's slowly getting used to the way her new friend runs things. He may be bossy and rude and arrogant and even a bit rough with her at times but she can't imagine a better friend. He didn't even blink once she told him her name.

"_A name means nothing. It's the person that matters. Don't let something as stupid as a last name stop you."_

Anahita has a slight skip to her steps despite the fact that the group of boys still march on behind them, chanting along with Bakugo. She's able to easily tune them out and focus on her attention and feeling of the surrounding water. Being near water always bring a breath of fresh air to her. It's like breathing for the very first time after holding a breath for too long. It's relaxing and tranquil to the mermaid quirk user. She was hoping to get more time in the water with an underwater tea party with Bakugo but the plans were soon thwarted by the neighbourhood kids.

Everyday for several weeks Anahita has left her backyard via the small hole in the fence without her parents knowledge. And everyday, Bakugo hunts her down and spends the entire day with her. Some days she manages to persuade Bakugo with a few tears and guppy eyes to have a tea party with her in a river or lake. Other days, most days, they going running through the parks and gardens to have an battle against quirks. It's Bakugo's favorite thing to do to pass time.

Except for today. Today Bakugo showed her off to the neighborhood kids, much to her annoyance. The whole three hours they have been out wandering around, she has done little tricks to try and lose the others but his followers are so dedicated to the short tempered blonde that nothing fazed them. Not even a swarm of frogs jumping from underneath the lily pads they crossed a few hundred feet back. Or even fish splashing water with their tails in their faces.

She would be lying if she didn't say she wasn't being a brat. She couldn't help it. She didn't like sharing attention. A part of her felt guilty but another part of her didn't seem to care. To her, his fans are and never will be a true friend like she is. The follow for the show off quirks and she follows because she genuinely enjoys his company.

Bakugo gave a small glance back, his eyes shining bright as his small explosions coming out the palm of his hands. "See, Ana? I can create fireworks if I wanted too. My explosions keep getting bigger and bigger. Way bigger than your water tricks."

Anahita grins and lets out a loud laugh and chooses to ignore the jab at her quirk. "It's beautiful!" She knows her quirk may be small and not as flashy as her explosive friend but with due time she's sure she'll be able to move oceans like her mother.

"How many can you shoot out without getting tired?" Anahita asks, tapping Bakugo on the backs of his hands.

Bakugo lets out a toothy grin. "I'll show you! I bet it's so many you won't be able to keep count."

He marches on with Anahita by his side, adding input here and there with his sharp witted tongue that holds no filter. Anahita didn't mind. She laughed and smiled and awed at all the right moments. Determined to keep this friend by her side.

* * *

Today marks an entire year of becoming friends with the only and only Bakugo Katsuki. An explosive loudmouth personality with a quirk to match. Despite his seemingly self absorbed and selfish personality, Anahita found herself drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Desperate for the warmth he can give her.

She was very careful to not tear or dirty the nice red dress her mother dressed her in this morning. She bent and curved her body carefully when going through the small hole in the wooden fence of her backyard to not cause any damage to her outfit on this special day. The only snag she had was when her hair got caught in the nails of the fence, causing her braid to become slightly lumpy on the top.

But none of that stops the five and a half year old from making her way around the winding roads, pass the parks and rivers, all the way to Katsuki Bakugo's front door of their home. Her short brain swings with every jump she takes on the stairs leading to the front door where the shortest blonde stands yelling. Arms flailing around in the air in impatience.

She tries and flattens her hair with her hands but to no avail. Her navy hair just bounces right back up much to Katsuki's enjoyment. She simply rolls her eyes and walks past him into the house and to where Mitsuki Bakugo waves from the kitchen. Her fingers covered in brown batter and a clear bowl sitting to the left of her with a pan on the other side.

Anahita grins. Cookie dough.

"It's about time you got here young lady. What did you do, walk here?" Mitsuki frowns, putting the brown dough into little balls on a cookie sheet. Anahita smiles sheepishly with a shrug. Her fingers begin playing with the skirt of her dress. She's not ready to reveal any details of her family life quiet yet. Her parents don't even know she sneaks out yet.

Mitsuki raises thin brow. Arms are crossed and Anahita immediately knows she's in for a lecture

"Leave my friend alone, you old hag!"

A resounding _smack_ echoed throughout the room. The tall blonde had slammed her hands against the kitchen counter top causing the little blue haired girl to jump. "What did you call me, brat?"

Katsuki gave a bored look to the both of them. "I called you a hag. Are you deaf too?"

Much to her relief, the mother - son traditional argument had begun. Her shoulders sagged and she let out a huge breath. Completely ignoring the household items that began to sail over head and instead watched Masaru wave his hands around trying to catch the flying items while also attempting to calm his wife and kid.

"Come on now, let's not resort to violence! We're better than this." He pleads. Yanking a toaster out of the air before it could hit his wife in the face.

Anahita smiles.

Despite the chaos and overwhelming screaming matches that would make any normal person uncomfortable enough to run for the hills, Anahita felt right at home in her seat at the kitchen disrgarding Bakugo screaming at his mom as loud as he can. As much as she cares for her friend, she knows he could and never will win an argument against the one and only Mitsuki Bakugo. Not that Anahita would ever tell Katsuki that. It's a secret she will keep with her to her grave.

She knows better than to step between the two hotheads. If you didn't get killed, you definitely got extremely hurt when being in the line of fire.

Reaching over the pans and cookie cutters, Anahita slides a glass bowl full of cookie dough towards her. Fulling intending to eat every last bit of raw goodness. Not even the bug like raisins in the dough could stop her from inhaling it. Cookie dough is her one weakness in life and is the for sure reason she has gained weight since meeting Bakugo family. They introduced her to the taste of raw dough the first time she had come over and ever since then she couldn't get enough of it. It is the perfect desert in her mind.

Who cares if there's a tiny chance you could get sick? Everything has the potention to harm her and Anahita refuses to live her life in fear ever since Katsuki Bakugo came into her life.

"Ah, you know the rules, Ana. You get one spoonful of raw cookie dough." Masaru gently pushes the bowl out of her graps right as her hand was about to grab a scoopful. "You know the rules, young lady. You will get sick."

"But I've never gotten sick before!" Anahita protest, guppy eyes beginning to be put into motion.

"Ah- Ah...now, Anahita, it's not fair to use that face to get what you want." Masaru rubs the back of his neck, looking anywhere but at the five year old sitting at his kitchen counter. Instead, he gives her a silver spoon from an outstretched arm.

The objects flying through the sky came to an abrupt halt.

"Hey, if the potato gets cookie dough I get cookie dough too!" His mother was quick to smack him upside the head.

"Don't call a lady that! I didn't raise you to be so fouled mouth, you twerp!"

Katsuki grumbles and shoves his mom's hand away from him, plopping himself in the seat next to his navy haired friend. Anahita laughs and hands him the silver spoon she was given earlier. "I think you may need a snack more than I do." She smirks. "And maybe a nap. You seem a little fussy."

"Who are you calling fussy, potato?" Harshly shoving the spoon in the bowl, Katsuki grabs a mountain of cookie dough and shoves it into Anahita's mouth. Forcing the spoon so roughly in her mouth that the small girl almost fell over and out of her chair.

"Ka-Ki!" Anahita mumbles, trying to talk around the mountain of sticky dough that was shoved into her mouth. Bakugo merely laughs, putting a noticeably smaller lump of dough into his mouth. "Still can't talk, huh?"

Anahita rolls her eyes. "I wanted a lot of cookie dough anyway." She sticks out her tongue once she's able to get the majority of the desert down her throat.

.

.

.

.

Three hours later is when Katsuki realized he wants to be a hero. Three hours later is when they found Anahita Keres on the floor barely breathing and eyes swollen shut. Unmoving. Immobile on the bathroom floor. Unresponsive to not only his mother shaking her shoulders, but also unresponsive to him yelling out her name.

His father forcibly took him out the room and down the stairs. Unaffected by the tiny fists beating down his shoulders and backs. Uncaring of aggressive shouts going directly into his paramedics didn't spare the screaming blonde as they passed him going up the stairs and down the hall to the bathroom where his friend lied. Barely breathing.

They didn't understand his need to be there. To do something. To no be helpless. What good is having a quirk if you can't use it? He clenched his fist tighter. Quirks, great quirks like his, are given to heros to save lives. What good is having a quirk when you can't save someone? He can't just stand here.

"It's just an allergic reaction, son. Nothing you can do." His father whispered in his ear, trying to give what's supposed to be comforting thumps on the back. "They'll have her up and running in no time. Just you wait. There's nothing you can do to help."

Katsuki hated that sentenced, Hated those words five words. _There's nothing you can do._ All Might can do anything. Save anyone. No matter what.

He watched the paramedics come up and down the stairs. Bags and cases coming in and out the room. They whispered among themselves. His mother began to start yelling from the top of the stairs, Anahita laying limp in her arms. The word villain had been tossed around. That much he could hear in the roar of his mother's angry yells. Her face is full blown red and hre voice hoarse.

"Please, she's a child." The paramedics shook their heads.

It took several seconds to realize just why they wouldn't help and save his friend. Katsuki could only see red. He flexed his fingers, mini explosions came from his sweaty palms.

"_Hey!"_ Katsuki twisted as much as he could in his father's hold to look at the idle paramedics in the living room. "Just because her parents aren't heroes doesn't mean she should be treated any less!" Katsuki Bakugo would deny it if anyone asked, especial Anahita, but he swore he could feel tears running down his face. "You are all big idiots if you see her anything other than Ana!"

A moment of silence whirled by before a blonde women stepped forward among the group and gently took out a needle and a clear back from a case and got to work.

"I can stabilize her but we will need to take a ride in the ambulance and take her to the hospital. Only one person is allowed to ride in the back with her though."

Katsuki let out a breath of relief and sagged against his father.

* * *

Her luck finally ran out after almost two years sneaking out the house to see Katsuki. She had been halfway out the whole when she felt a firm grasp grip around her ankle, yanking her harshly away from fence. She got a mouthful of dirt.

"What do you think you're doing, Ana?" A quiet rough voice asked from behind her.

She freezes.

Her mother's long manicured nails dig slightly into her ankle. "Ana, dear, your dress is completely ruined. Oh, and your hair! I worked so hard on that." Her mom clicks her tongue. "It's going to take hours to get those stains out."

Anahita closes her eyes as tight as she could. This could not be happening to her. She was so quiet and thought she had made sure they were gone for they day.

"I think there's more important matters to discuss dear. It looks like our daughter was attempting to sneak out." Her dad sounded like he wanted to laugh at her and that he was barely containing himself.

Dread filled the pit of her stomach. "I'm so busted." She whispers to herself, taking a glance back.

Her mom cautiously leaned toward her, hands outstretched to take out the leaves that have gotten stuck in Anahita's hair when pulled back. Vibrant;long blue hair fell off her mom's shoulders, the edges tickling Anahita's nose. "Yes, there is that, but, I won't allow her to track mud in the house. Look at her. A complete mess. She needs to be washed first then you can question her."

Her dad's dark green, almost black hair, sways when he shakes his head with a sigh. "Fine then," he waves his hand in the air. "But after that. I expect an explanation."

Anahita's little world came crashing down on her. She knew this was inevitable but she still wasn't prepared for the confrontation that was to be coming. She just hopes that she can still be friends with Katsuki.

"Okay, dad."

_So much for never living in fear again._

* * *

**A/N: And that's that! First chapter down! I think this is the longest chapter I have ever wrote and I believe this story is the better more mapped out stories I have currently going on so I hope you all enjoyed! Let me know what you think! I try and update everything once a month at least! I have a lot of projects going on plus work out in the real world so I try and update a minimum once a month.**

**Any questions? Tumblr: **_Breananaslove_ **I am a lot more active on my Tumblr than I am on here so if you need to ask me anything I suggest going there because I most likely won't ever check my messages on here.**

**Thanks for the view! I hope to see you lovely readers next time!**

**Written: **December 2018 to February 2019

**Last Edited: **February 2019

**Published: **February 2019

_**Fun Fact**_ **for the end of this chapter. Bakugo, since Ana's first allergic reaction, began to always carry an epipen on him in case of emergencies for his coconut allergic friend.**


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